Against the background of the tensions surrounding the holy sites in Jerusalem, this renewed exchange of fire on Wednesday evening raises fears of a military escalation.
Armed Palestinian groups on Thursday (April 21) fired a volley of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel, which has carried out a series of attacks in the area under the control of Islamists Hamas, raising fears of a new military escalation amid tensions stoked associated with the Holy Places in Jerusalem.
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On Wednesday night, a rocket, the second this week, was fired from the Gaza Strip to hit a field in the Israeli city of Sderot (south) without causing injuries. According to witnesses and security sources, the Israeli army carried out a series of attacks in the center of this micro-territory of 2.3 million people. “Israeli warplanes targeted military positions and the entrance to a tunnel leading to an underground complex storing chemicals used to propel rockets,” the Israeli army said. “These attacks on the Gaza Strip will strengthen our people’s resolve and resistance (…) to defend our holy sites in Jerusalem, regardless of the casualties,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
Shortly after the retaliatory strikes, four more rockets were fired into Israel, where they were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile shield, the army said as alarm sirens sounded in Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip in the middle of the night. The gunfire – the second this week and one of the most intense since the end of the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 – comes after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police this weekend on the esplanade of Jerusalem’s mosques, the third holiest Site in Islam and the first holiest site in Judaism to go by its name Temple Mount.
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On Thursday morning, Israel Police said in a statement that “dozens of rioters threw stones and incendiary bottles from Al-Aqsa Mosque” at police. “A violent group is preventing Muslim worshipers from entering the mosque and is causing damage to the place,” the statement added. Seven Palestinians, residents of East Jerusalem suspected of taking part in “violent incidents” on the Esplanade on Wednesday, were also arrested, police said.
“Provocation”
Palestinians and several of the region as a gesture of provocation. Israeli police blocked hundreds of Jewish nationalist protesters from approaching the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday night to avoid clashes that could lead to an escalation between Israeli and Palestinian movements.
I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger the Israeli soldiers and police and further complicate their mission.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
Nationalist organizations had called for a large demonstration in the Old City of Jerusalem, where the mosque esplanade is located, a demonstration that the government saw as a “provocation” gesture. More than a thousand demonstrators with Israeli flags gathered in Tsahal Square near City Hall opposite the Old City early in the evening. And hundreds of protesters attempted to approach the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the city’s Muslim Quarter. But police blocked these protesters, including many supporters of far-right MP Itamar Ben Gvir, who was banned from those locations by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett earlier in the day.
‘Deeply Concerned’
“I will not allow Ben Gvir’s political provocation to endanger Israeli soldiers and police and further complicate their mission,” the prime minister said. “I will say it clearly (…), I will not bow down,” Itamar Ben Gvir told AFP. “By what law am I not allowed to enter the Damascus Gate?”
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply concerned about the deteriorating situation in Jerusalem,” his spokesman said in New York on Wednesday. “He is in contact with all parties to defuse tensions, prevent hate speech and rhetoric.” Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police on Friday and Sunday injured more than 170 on the mosque esplanade during celebrations of the Muslim month of Ramadan and Passover coincided.
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